Time-stamp.



No. 875,272. PATENTED DEC. 31, 1907. H. O. JACKSON & H. W. PIDGEON.

TIME STAMP.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 13.1906.

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.No. 875,272. PATENTED DEC. 31, 1907. H. O. JACKSON & H. W. PIDGEON.

TIME STAMP.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.13.1906.

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PATENTED DEC. 31, 1907.

H. 0. JACKSON & H. W. PIDGEON. TIME STAMP.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 13,1906.

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5 time stamp embodying our invention.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY O. JACKSON, OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, AND HARRY W. PIDGEON, OFCHICAGO,

ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS TO AMERICAN CLOCK COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF ILLI-NOIS.

TIME-STAMP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 31, 1907.

Application filed November 13. 1906. Serial No. 343.312-

vented a new and useful Time-Stamp, of p which the following is aspecification.

Our invention relates to' a novel construction of a time stamp which isadapted to be automatically and electrically operated and is capable ofregistering or recording upon a strip of paper or other suitablematerial, the exact year, month, day, hour and minute when an impressiontakes place, provision being made whereby the apparatus requiresattention but once in a year, and means being provided to simplify thestructure and arrangement of the lprinting and indicating devices andthe mec anism for bringing the matter to be printed into coaction withthe other devices so as to render the structure.

stable and not likely to get out of order, whereby there will be clearlyindicated and exposed to view in proper order and in the same right linethe year, the month, the da of the month and the time of the day according to requirements.

To the above ends our invention consists broadly, in the novelcombination and arrangement of devices, as hereinafter described andclaimed, for actuating a series of dating and time indicating means, allmounted to revolve independently and in proper order, preferably uponthe same horizontal axis.

For the purpose of illustrating our invention, we shall show one form ofmechanism,

as this embodiment best illustrates the principle of our invention andhas been found in practice to give very satisfactory results, althoughit is obvious that the principal instrumentalities of which ourinvention con sists can be variously arranged and organized and in theaccompanying drawings we have shown one embodiment thereof, which hasbeen found to ,be practicable and efficient, although it is ,tobeunderstood that our invention is not limited to this specificarrangement and organizationof these instrumentalities.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation (if a 1g. 2 represents a frontelevation, partly insection, having the front plate removed, show ingthe spring barrel and dating ribbon. Fig. 3 represents a perspectiveview in detached position, of the dating ribbon and escape wheel palletand cam release mechanism. Fig. 4'represents a perspective view of thetype wheels and live pawl employed. Fig. 5 represents a sectional viewof the spring barrel and ratchet wheel, the section being taken on linexoc, Fig. 6. Fig. 6 represents a sectional view of the spring barrelshowing the internal construction of the same. Fig. 7 represents aperspective view of the type wheels separated to show ratchet wheelsmounted on their respective typewheels. Fig. 8 represents a reverseperspective view of the typewheels and drum showing ratchet wheels camand sleeve of drum, section of drum being cut out to show the sleeve.Fig. 9 represents a sectional view of type wheels and drum mounted onthe shaft.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in thefigures.

Referring to the drawings :In the detailed description of our inventionwe shall refer particularly to the novel elements to which our inventionrelates, .describing only in a general way the other or old mechanicalfeatures which are familiar to those skilled in the art.

'1 designates our novel construction of time stamp, the same consistingof the outer plates 2 and 3, within and by which the principal parts ofour novel device are contained and supported.

4 designates the electro magnet provided with an armature having aspring of the usual construction, whereby the armature is actuated inopposition to its actuation by the magnet, as will be understood bythose skilled in the art.

5 designates an extension of the armature which is connected to a rockshaft 6 by suitable intermediate mechanism, said rock shaft having aspring actuated pawl 7 connected thereto, said pawl engaging with aratchet wheel 8 mounted on the shaft 9,

which is supported in suitable bearings in the ,In addition to theratchets 18 connected to the type wheels 14, 15, 16 and 17said live pawl12 is also adapted to. actuate a ratchet 19 connected to a cam wheel 20,which is fastened to the sleeve 29 supported by the shaft 40, mounted insuitable bearings, on which sleeve is mounted a drum 22 having fastenedto one end thereof an escapement wheel 21.

24 designates the type ribbon which is mounted on a reel 41 mounted onthe shaft 23, as will'be understood from Fig. 2, one end of said ribbon24 being fastened to a reel 25 mounted on the shaft 9, said ribbontraveling over the drum 22, as will be understood from Figs. 2 and 3.

26 is a ribbon-tension spring within the barrel 27, as seenin Figs. 5and 6.

It will be seen that in the preferred em bodiment of our invention, theribbon 24 carries upon it characters indicative of the months and thedays of the month, while the wheels 17, 16, and 15 carry upon themcharacters indicative of the hours and minutes of the day, while thewheel 14 has thereon characters-indicative of A. M. or P. M., while thewheel 13 has upon it characters indicative of the years, as 1906, 190.7,1908, etc;

In order to retain the ratchets 18 in their proper respective positions,we employ the pawls 42 mounted on the shaft 43, seen in Figs. 2 and 4,one pawl for each ratchet, and we also employ the comb spring 44 bearingon each pawl to retain the same in position.

The operation will be apparent to those skilled in the art, since itwill be apparent that when the magnet 4 is energized by reason ofsuitable electrically operated clock mechanism, which we have showndiagrammatically at the rightof Fig. 2, the armature will move the lever5 forwardly or to the right of the position seen in Fig. 2, therebycausing the pawl 7 to engage with the ratchet teeth 8, thereby movingsaid ratchet wheel 8 one notch to the right and winding the spring 26,as seen in Figs. 5 and 6, thereby placing a tension on the ribbon 24, aswill be evident. It will, consequently, be apparent that every motion oractuation of the armature will increase the tension on the spring 26until such time as it will slip in the barrel 27, and that, therefore,any further motion or actuation of said armature will simply tend tokeep the spring at a desired tension. The type wheels are provided withnotches and pawls to produce proper rotation at the proper time, as iscommon to all devices of this character, as

will be a parent to those skilled in the art, and it will be-seen thatafter the type wheels have moved through a period of twenty four hoursless one minute, then said live awl 12 will drop into a notch on eachtype w eel, as indicated at 28, Figs. 4, 7 and 8 and engage in theratchet 19, which moves thecam 20,

thereby releasing the escape wheel 21 and allowing a movement to theribbon 24,'which has to jump forward one notch, thereby chang ing thedate. At the beginning of the movement of the ratchet 19, which isconnected to the cam 20 by means of a sleeve29, said cam being fast onsaid sleeve, the pallet 30 is disengaged from the escape wheel 21,thereby allowing the type ribbon 24 to advance to another date, whichaction will occur at twelve oclock, at which instant all the type wheels14, 15, 16 and 17 and the drum 22 advance one notch. It will thus beseen that -this operation is repeated once ever twenty four hours, asthe various dating w eels are operated according to the minutes andhours in each day, the wheel 13, indicating the year being operated byhand at the close of each year and at the same time the ty e ribbon 24is re-wound on the wheel 41. n rewinding the ribbon 24 the s ring 26slips in the barrel 27 to the desire extent, as will be understood tothose skilled in the art. The device is then ready for action for aperiod of another year. It will be understood that -in order that theribbon 24 may be moved in unison with the drum 22 at all times, weprovide said ribbon 24 with holes 31 which are adapted to engage pins 32carried by said drum so that there is no liability of the ribbon anddrum moving independently or irregularly with respect to each other.

It will be understood that our invention is in practice used inconnection with a suitable ink ribbon which we have indicated at 33,said inkribbon being ada ted to pass over rollers 34 and to be wounautomatically or by hand upon the rollers 35 and 36. In prac tice weemplo in conjunction with the ink ribbon, suitabie mechanism forenabling said ribbon to be actuated automatically, but in the presentinstance we have shown the same conventionally as being mounted onsuitable spools or rollers, as 35 and 36, carried in the frame or sidepieces 37, which are secured in position by fastenin devices 38, wherebthe ink ribbon and its adjuncts can be readi y removed according torequirements, for the purposes of inspection and repairs.

The automatic change of the time in the stamp is effected byelectricity, the electric current by which the changes are effectedbeing received from a clock or regulating mechanism of well knownconstruction and with which the device may be in circuit, said regulatorbein ordinarily capable of closing the circuit and thus giving animpulse to the indicator mechanism of the stamp once every 'tuatingimpression or ot minute, as is apparent to those skilled in the art,although it will be evident that we do not desire to be limited to anyparticular type of electric clock or regulating mechanism for carryingout the broad principles of our invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that our novel deviceis particularly ad apted to be used in conjunction with suitableimpressionmechanism located below the ink ribbon 33 whereby at theproper intervals when it isdesired to indicate the exact period when atransaction has taken place, a suitable platen or impression device, notshown, will be caused to operate in an upward direction so as to impressupon the sheet of paper, ticket or other material interposed between thetype wheels and-the ribbon 33, the year, month, day, hour and minutewhen the transaction occurred or when said impression took place. In oneapplication of our invention we have employed the same to great advan tae in the stamping of accident insurance tic ets in a coin controlledapparatus, but, in its broad aspects it will, of course, be understoodthat our invention is capable of general application and is not to belimited or re stricted in its use to any particular type of acermechanism.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Let ters Patent, is

1., In a time stamp, a type ribbon having thereon characters indicativeof the months and'the days of the month, a series of reels over 'whichsaid ribbon passes and upon which it is alternately wound and unwoundfrom one to the other, a tension device for said ribbon, a drum overwhich the ribbon passes, a shaft supporting said drum, wheels on saidshaft, date and time indicating devices on said wheels, and electrictime con trolled means for actuating said ribbons and wheels.

2. In a time stamp, a type ribbon having thereon characters indicativeof the months and the days of the month, a series of reels over whichsaid ribbon passes and upon which it is alternately wound and unwoundfrom one to the other, a tension device for said ribbon, a drum overwhich the ribbon passes, a shaft supporting said drum, wheels on saidshaft, date and time indicating devices on said wheels, electric timecontrolled means for actuating said ribbons and wheels, and an inkribbon located below said wheels.

3. In a time stamp, a type ribbon having thereon characters indicativeof the months and the days of the month, a series of reels over whichsaid ribbon passes and upon which it is alternately wound and unwoundfrom one to the other, a tension device for said ribbon, a drum overwhich the ribbon passes, a shaft supporting said drum, wheels on saidshaft, date and time indicating de vices on said wheels, and electrictime controlled means for intermittently actuating said ribbons andwheels.

4. In a time stamp, a type ribbon having thereon characters indicativeof the months and the days of the month, a series of reels over whichsaid ribbon passes and upon which it is alternately wound and unwound Ifrom one to the other, a tension device for said ribbon, a drum overwhich the ribbon passes, a shaft supporting said drum, wheels on saidshaft, date and time indicating devices on said wheels, electric timecontrolled means for actuating said ribbons and wheels, an ink ribbonlocated below said wheels, and means for locking said type ribbon andwheels.

5. In a time stamp, a shaft having a drum thereon, a plurality of reelsabove said shaft, a type ribbon passing around said drum and adapted tobe wound or unwound with respect to each of said reels, said type ribbonhaving thereon characters indicative of the months and days of themonths,devices in alinement with said drum having thereon charactersindicative of the hours and time of day and the year, and anelectrically operated device for effecting the actuation of said typeribbon and its adjuncts.

6. In a time stamp, a shaft having a drum thereon, wheels mounted onsaid shaft, and having thereon characters indicative of the hours andtime of day, a wheel mounted on said shaft having thereon charactersindicative of years, a plurality of reels located above said drum, atype ribbon passing 'around said drum and having its ends secured tosaid reels, said type ribbon having thereon characters indicative of themonths and days of the months, and electrically operated devices foreffecting the actuation of said wheels and ribbon.

7. In a time stamp, a shaft having a-drum thereon, wheels mounted onsaid shaft, and having thereon characters indicative of the hours andtime of day, a wheel mounted on said shaft having thereon charactersindicative of years, a plurality of reels located above said drum, atype ribbon passing around said drum and having its ends secured to saidreels, said type ribbon having thereon characters indicative of themonths and days of the' months, and electrically operated devices foreffecting the actuation of said wheels and type ribbon, in combinationwith an ink ribbon located below said wheels.

8. In a time stamp, an electro magnet, an armature actuated thereby, aplurality of reels having mounted thereon a type ribbon carryingcharacters indicative of months and days of the months, a drum overwhich said type ribbon passes, a shaft on which said drum is mounted,type wheels carried on said shaft and bearing characters indicative ofthe hours, months and periods of the day,

a type wheel having thereon characters indie-- ative of years, a livepawl for operating said type wheels, and connections from said pawl tosaid armature.

9. In a time stamp, a shaft having a drum thereon, type wheels mountedon said shaft and having characters indicative of the hours and time ofthe day, a wheel mounted 'on said shaft having thereon charactersindicative of years, a plurality of reels located above said drum, atension device for one of said reels, a type ribbon passing around saidreels said type ribbon having thereon characters indicative of themonths and days of the month, and electrically operated devices foreffecting the actuation of said wheels and type ribbon.

10. In a time stamp, a magnet, an armature actuated thereby, a shafthaving a ratchet wheel thereon, a rock'shaft, connections from saidarmature to said rock shaft, a pawl supported from said rock shaft foractuating said ratchet wheel, a reel on said shaft carrying a typeribbon having thereon characters indicative of months and days of themonth, a drum around which said ty e ribbon passes, a second reel uponwhich tiie other end of said type ribbon is mounted, a series of wheelshaving thereon-characters indicative of the hours and time of the day, aWheel indicative of the years, a live pawl for actuatingsaid wheels, andconnections from said rock shaft to said live pawl for actuating thelatter.

11. In a time stam an electro magnet 4, an armature actuater thereby, arock shaft suitably supported, an extension from said armature leadingto said rock shaft, a pawl connected to said rock shaft, a shaft 9having suitable bearings, a tension device, a ratchet wheel 8 mounted onsaid shaft, said pawl engaging with said ratchet wheel, a lever 10,connected to said rock shaft and movable in unison therewith, a link 11attached to the lower extremitv of said lever, a carriage connected tosaid link, a live pawl 12 secured to said carriage, aseries of ty ewheels 14, 15, 16 and 17 having thereon c aracters indicative of periodsof the day, ratchets on said type wheels adapted to be 0 erated by said5 live pawl, a type wheel 13 aving thereon characters indicative ofyears, a cam wheel operated by'said live pawl, a shaft on which said camwheel is mounted, a drum 22 on said shaft, an escape wheel 21 on saiddrum, a shaft 23 having secured thereto a reel, a type ribbon having oneend secured to said reel, a reel 25 having the other end of said typeribbon secured thereto, a drum 22 around which said type ribbon passes,and means for actuating and locking said drum and type wheels at thedesired intervals.

HENRY O. JACKSON, HARRY W. PIDGEON.

Witnesses:

E. HAYWARD FAIRBANKS, C. D. MoVAY.

